The Tennessee Valley Corridor National Summit in Oak Ridge in May will feature presentations on advanced manufacturing, clean energy and a nuclear renaissance, and national security and cyber security.
The 2018 TVC National Summit is scheduled from May 29-31 at the New Hope Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. It will be hosted by Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch in cooperation with U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann.
Agenda topics include: [Read more…]
The installation of the Summit supercomputer continues at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Jan. 23, 2018, with the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility and IBM teams receiving and installing compute nodes. Summit will come online in late 2018 for early science, and will be available to users in January 2019. (Image credit: Jason Richards/ORNL. Used under Creative Commons license)
The supercomputer being built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could change the race for supercomputing supremacy between the United States and China, U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann said during a budget hearing on Thursday.
The congressman said Summit, a 200-petaflop supercomputer at ORNL, will be commissioned this summer, and it will be the fastest supercomputer in the world, with twice the power of the top Chinese system. The Chinese machine is a 93-petaflop system known as Sunway TaihuLight.
During Thursday’s budget hearing, which featured Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Fleischmann said the United States and China are in a race for supercomputing supremacy. The race is critical to advances in science and technology that will drive economic growth, said Fleischmann, a Republican whose district includes Oak Ridge.
Citing a February 9 edition of Science magazine, Fleischmann said the U.S. dominated supercomputer rankings for decades but is now far behind. The combined power of the top two machines in China easily outpaces all 21 supercomputers operated by the U.S. Department of Energy, the country’s top funder of supercomputers, the congressman said.
But that could change with the commissioning of Summit this summer, Fleischmann said. [Read more…]
U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steve Winberg looks on as Acting National Energy Technology Laboratory Director Sean Plasynski, left, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thomas Zacharia shake hands after signing a research agreement on new ways to use coal on Friday, March 2, 2018. (Photo courtesy NETL)
Two U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories with energy research expertise, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have agreed to pursue research that could find new ways to use coal, a press release said.
ORNL and the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, signed the agreement, a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, on Friday, March 2.
The two labs are joining forces to pursue research on new ways to use coal to create innovative high-value products, the press release said.
U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steve Winberg attended the signing event.
“The MOU signed today signals the Department’s continued commitment to enhancing the use of our coal resources,” Winberg said. “The depth and breadth of scientific knowledge across the DOE enterprise, especially at our national labs, is what allows for this kind of innovative partnership.” [Read more…]
Robertsville Middle School in Oak Ridge is the first middle school to ever be selected for a NASA program that launches small cube-shaped satellites into space. On Friday, March 9, 2018, the $70,000 science project got a $15,000 boost from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Celebrating above by saying “NASA, we are a go!” are RMS students, teacher Todd Livesay, ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia, Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers, and other Oak Ridge Schools staff and project volunteers. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 2 p.m. March 11.
Robertsville Middle School in Oak Ridge is the first middle school to ever be selected for a NASA program that launches small cube-shaped satellites into space.
On Friday, the $70,000 science project, which started about three years ago, got a $15,000 boost from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The Robertsville satellite, which will orbit a few hundred miles above Earth, will use a small camera to try to take pictures of forest regrowth in the Great Smoky Mountains near Gatlinburg. That area burned in forest fires fed by high winds after Thanksgiving 2016, killing 14 people and damaging or destroying more than 2,500 homes and businesses.
The RMS satellite, named RamSat, will use a radio to relay its images and other data back to Earth.
A project proposal was submitted to NASA in November, and Oak Ridge Schools learned this month that the RMS proposal had been accepted.
“This is such an exciting opportunity for the students!” said Peter Thornton, one of the RamSat team leaders from ORNL. “They will now have the chance to design, build, carry out, and own a satellite mission.” [Read more…]
Winning first place in the 2018 Tennessee Science Bowl is an Oak Ridge High School team that is pictured above, from left to right with their trophy: Steven Qu, Henry Shen, Melody Guo, Joe Andress, and Batu Odbadrakh. (Submitted photo)
ORHS team advances to National Science Bowl
After months of training, studying, and improving their competition skills, 59 high school teams from across the state of Tennessee gathered this weekend to test their knowledge in broad science disciplines including chemistry, biology, physics, and energy.
Oak Ridge High School placed first in the annual competition and received an all-expenses-paid trip to the U.S. Department of Energy National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C., held April 26-30, as well as a $1,000 cash prize and a first-place trophy, a press release said.
The Tennessee Science Bowl is the nation’s third-largest regional competition. Held at Pellissippi State Community College’s Blount County Campus, the regional bowl prepares students to compete nationally with other exceptional students from schools across the country, the press release said. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge City Council has a special meeting at 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16, 2018, to consider two contracts, one for water line repair and the other for pool repair. The water line repair is an emergency repair to a 24-inch feed that is considered critical for Oak Ridge National Laboratory and passes through the Y-12 National Security Complex.
The Oak Ridge City Council has a special meeting at 4 p.m. today (Friday, February 16) to consider two contracts, one for water line repair and the other for pool repair. The water line repair is an emergency repair to a 24-inch feed that is considered critical for Oak Ridge National Laboratory and passes through the Y-12 National Security Complex.
If approved, the water line repair contract would be valued at roughly $100,000, and it would be awarded to Hurst Excavating LLC of Knoxville. The project would replace about 400 feet of the 24-inch water line, which is along Bear Creek Road inside the Y-12 National Security Complex.
The project is a joint effort between the City of Oak Ridge and the U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Public Works Director Shira A. McWaters said in a February 15 memo to City Manager Mark Watson. The city-DOE water contract specifies that repairs are to be shared 50/50, McWaters said.
The cast iron water line runs from east to west from the city’s water treatment plant, which is on Pine Ridge at Y-12, to Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The line failed January 29. It is part of the infrastructure that was transferred to the city in May 2000, when the city assumed ownership and began operating the water treatment plant, which had previously been owned by DOE. [Read more…]
Undergraduates, graduate students, and recent college graduates may find the research opportunity that meets their career goals during the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Science Education and Workforce Development Virtual Career Fair next week.
The Virtual Career Fair will be held from noon to 3 p.m. Thursday, February 22. It will be hosted by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a press release said.
“The virtual career fair is a great opportunity for students to investigate research opportunities available at ORNL,” said Bill Cox, ORISE group manager. “Participants will have the same ability to ask questions as if they were at a career fair in person.” [Read more…]
Peter Thornton
Peter Thornton, deputy director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Climate Change Science Institute and group leader for the Terrestrial Systems Modeling Group in ORNL’s Environmental Sciences Division, will describe the current best understanding of climate change on Thursday, February 22 at 7 p.m., a press release said. The public is invited to attend this free program.
Thornton’s presentation will describe evidence regarding historical and modern climate changes, and projections of future climate based on Earth system models, the press release said. His current research involves the development, evaluation, and application of Earth system models for future climate change prediction. His areas of expertise include the interaction of water, energy, carbon, and nutrients within land ecosystems, the interactions of vegetation communities with the atmosphere, and weather observations over land, the release said. (See a brief ORNL summary here.)
The presentation, co-sponsored by Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, Climate Coalition Lobby-Knoxville, and the Citizens Climate Coalition at Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, will be in the Social Room at the Oak Ridge Civic Center.
Brent Park
President Donald J. Trump on Thursday nominated a national security leader at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to a nuclear nonproliferation job in the U.S. Department of Energy.
Brent K. Park is currently an associate laboratory director at ORNL, where he is responsible for national security programs.
Trump nominated him to be deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation in the Department of Energy. [Read more…]
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management has awarded Strata-G LLC a contract to perform environmental sampling as part of an effort to build a new disposal facility on the DOE’s Oak Ridge Reservation. (Photo courtesy DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management)
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management has awarded Strata-G LLC a contract to perform environmental sampling as part of its effort to build a new waste disposal facility on the Oak Ridge Reservation.
Under the contract, valued at about $1 million, the veteran-owned small business is responsible for drilling 16 wells to access groundwater, characterize surface water, and gather soil samples for geotechnical investigations at the Bear Creek Valley site, located on federal land west of the Y-12 National Security Complex, a press release said. That site is known as the Central Bear Creek Valley site.
Information gathered from the environmental sampling activities will be used to determine if the site is suited for future waste disposal operations and to support detailed design for the new disposal facility, known as the Environmental Management Disposal Facility. Fieldwork is scheduled for completion in April, and a final report on the effort will be released later this year, the press release said. [Read more…]
Pasquale Fulvio, Ph.D., researched carbon composites during his time in the Higher Education Research Experiences faculty program. (Photo submitted by ORAU)
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education is currently seeking college faculty for paid research opportunities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory through the Higher Education Research Experiences program, a press release said.
This research program provides opportunities for teaching and non-teaching faculty, like Pasquale Fulvio, to use the unique resources of ORNL to enhance science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education, encourage careers in science and technology, and improve scientific literacy, the press release said.
Appointments will be located at ORNL and generally take place during the summer; part-time appointments may occur during the semester depending on the requirements of the project. Sabbatical appointments may also be available. The program provides stipends based on the certified academic institution salary for faculty, as well as limited travel and housing assistance, if eligible, the release said.
Applications are open year-round, and appointments are made throughout the year with flexible start and end dates, the press release said. [Read more…]
In 1951, Oak Ridge National Laboratory began producing the nickel-63 isotope that is now used in airport detectors to prevent terrorism. Today, ORNL is the only known producer of this isotope. (Photo courtesy ORNL)
Did you know? In 1951, Oak Ridge National Laboratory began producing the nickel-63 isotope that is now used in airport detectors to prevent terrorism.
Today, ORNL says it is the only known producer of this isotope.
“Did you know?” is an occasional feature on Oak Ridge Today that highlights interesting facts about Oak Ridge that might not be widely known. This includes information that makes the city and its federal facilities unique or unusual.
